Household Accounts

Porter Benson Susan

Description

With unprecedented subtlety, compassion and richness of detail, Susan Porter Benson takes readers into the budgets and the lives of working-class families in the United States between the two world wars. Focusing on families from regions across America and of differing races and ethnicities, she argues that working-class families of the time were not on the verge of entering the middle class and embracing mass culture. Rather, she contends that during the interwar period such families lived in a context of scarcity and limited resources, not plenty. Their consumption, Benson argues, revolved around hard choices about basic needs and provided therapeutic satisfactions only secondarily, if at all. Household Accounts is rich with details Benson gathered from previously untapped sources, particularly interviews with women wage earners conducted by field agents of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor. She provides a vivid picture of a working-class culture of family consumption: how working-class families negotiated funds; how they made qualitative decisions about what they wanted; how they determined financial strategies and individual goals; and how, in short, families made ends meet during this period. Topics usually central to the histories of consumption-he development of mass consumer culture, the hegemony of middle-class versions of consumption, and the expanded offerings of the marketplace-contributed to but did not control the lives of working-class people. Ultimately, Household Accounts seriously calls into question the usual narrative of a rising and inclusive tide of twentieth-century consumption.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• Economic history
• Social class
• Microeconomics
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 25 septembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801454271
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Household Accounts

SPBAmerican labor and genderwas a historian of who received her Ph.D. from Boston University. She taught at Bristol Com- munity College in Fall River, Mass., for almost twenty-five years, at the University of Missouri at Columbia for seven years, and, at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, for the next dozen years, where she served for five years as the director of the Women’s Studies Program. She was the author ofCustomers in AmericanManagers, and Counter Cultures: Saleswomen, Department Stores,–(University of Illinois Press,), and nu- merous articles and chapters on gender, family, and work. In addition she was a co-editor (with Steven Brier and Roy Rosenzweig) ofPresenting the Past: Essays on History and the Public(Temple University Press,).

Household Accounts

WorkingClass Family Economies in the Interwar United States

S u s a n P o r t e r B e n s o n

A f t e r w o r d b y D a v i d M o n t g o m e r y

Cornell University Press Ithaca & London

Copyrîght © 2007 by Cornell Unîversîty

All rîghts reserved. Except for brîef quotatîons în a revîew, thîs book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced în any form wîthout permîssîon în wrîtîng from the publîsher. For înformatîon, address Cornell Unîversîty Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

Fîrst publîshed 2007 by Cornell Unîversîty Press Fîrst prîntîng, Cornell Paperbacks, 2015

Prînted în the Unîted States of Amerîca

Lîbrary of Congress Catalogîng-în-Publîcatîon Data Benson, Susan Porter, 1943–2005.  Household accounts : U.S. workîng-class famîly economîes, 1919–1941 / Susan Porter Benson.  p. cm.  Includes bîblîographîcal references and îndex.  ISBN 978-0-8014-3723-6 (cloth : alk. paper)  ISBN 978-0-8014-5672-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)  1. Households—Economîc aspects—Unîted States—Hîstory—20th century. 2. Famîly—Economîc aspects—Unîted States—Hîstory—20th century. 3. Workîng class—Unîted States—Hîstory—20th century. 4. Consumptîon (Economîcs)—Unîted States—Hîstory—20th century. 5. Unîted States— Economîc condîtîons—1918–1945. I. Tîtle.  HC106.3.B47 2007  339.4'7086230973—dc22 2006102926

Cornell Unîversîty Press strîves to use envîronmentally responsîble supplîers and materîals to the fullest extent possîble în the publîshîng of îts books. Such materîals înclude vegetable-based, low-VOC înks and acîd-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorîne-free, or partly composed of nonwood ibers. For further înformatîon, vîsît our websîte at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth prîntîng Paperback prîntîng

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Sue’s students at the Universities of Connecticut, Missouri, and Warwick, and at Bristol Community College, –

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. .

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Contents

A Note onHousehold Accounts Acknowledgments

and Its Preparation

Introduction “Living on the Margin”: Working-Class Marriages and Family Survival Strategies “Cooperative Conflict”: Gender, Generation, and Consumption in Working-Class Families The Mutuality of Shared Spaces What Goes ’Round, Comes ’Round: Working-Class Reciprocity The Family Economy in the Marketplace

Class, Gender, and Reciprocity: An Afterword, by David Montgomery

Notes Index

ix xi

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 

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 

A Note onHousehold Accountsand Its Preparation

When Susan Porter Benson dîed în June 2005, she left her book manuscrîpt 95 percent completed. The gaps încluded the absence of complete cîtatîons to a few secondary sources and the need to check over varîous parts: to see that a book constructed în a complex way and done over several years, often durîng an îllness, dîd not repeat poînts and examples across chapters. It was also necessary to întegrate one short sectîon on secondhand goods înto the book and to încorporate more transîtîonal materîal as chapters started and ended. Sue conferred wîth Jean Allman and Davîd Roedîger regardîng these matters shortly before her death. It was agreed that Allman and Roedîger should brîng these small matters to completîon, enlîstîng the expert aîd of Nancy Hewîtt, Charles McGraw, and Sharon Strom, each of whom took responsîbîlîty for revîsîng sectîons of the manuscrîpt. McGraw also completed the împortant standardîzatîon and checkîng of the manuscrîpt’s footnotes. Ophelîa Benson provîded expert edîtorîal assîstance. Jîm O’Brîen metîculously prepared the îndex. The watchword în every case was to preserve the spîrît and letter of the manuscrîpt rather than to revîse extensîvely. The book appears only under Sue’s name, as ît îs în every sense her work. Sue’s husband adds that thîs agreement brought joy to Sue, and hîm, în the last days of her lîfe.